On "obliterating the 'I'"
Jul. 24th, 2002 01:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sophiaserpentiaHeh, I found this I'd written about a year ago in response to someone who was extolling the virtue of "obliterating the ego" in a forum on Beliefnet.
"'Be as you are' is good advice, but the idea of obliterating the 'I'... in my opinion, is not.
"If you manage to obliterate the 'I,' the problem is that, like the cat in that folk song, it comes back the very next day. Wherever a thought slides through your neural pathways, the 'I' is there to ride along with it. Unless you stop your mind altogether, the 'I' will return to plague you.
"What I think mystics are trying to get at, is that it can be important to learn how to calm the turbulent mind and develop a sense of stillness. The inner reflection of this is the running 'mental commentary' that you may not even be aware is always going on. "
"'Be as you are' is good advice, but the idea of obliterating the 'I'... in my opinion, is not.
"If you manage to obliterate the 'I,' the problem is that, like the cat in that folk song, it comes back the very next day. Wherever a thought slides through your neural pathways, the 'I' is there to ride along with it. Unless you stop your mind altogether, the 'I' will return to plague you.
"What I think mystics are trying to get at, is that it can be important to learn how to calm the turbulent mind and develop a sense of stillness. The inner reflection of this is the running 'mental commentary' that you may not even be aware is always going on. "
